Justin Fox makes minicomics: Earth Minds Are Weak, 21st-Century Depression Comics and I Dreamed of You and Mr. Eybyaninch. All with Cliff Face Comics.
This is his work blog.

Saturday, January 26, 2008

FSSMTW 1: FELL #9

FELL #9

I'm happy Fell exists. Mostly because it led to Casanova's existence, but also because it can be a nice little throwaway book on it's own. Fun enough to read when a new issue comes out, but not the sort of thing I need a big fat collection of. A comic book.

The best thing about Fell is that the last two issues have actually been the best in the series so far. The story actually fit in the the 16 pages without feeling too slight or like it was missing significant pages. There's a scene that uses a stickman in a door to suggest the location and actions of an unseen hostage-taker from Detective Fell's position that is a pretty clever use of comics. And the hostage crisis had a nice little twist to it. I do very much like Templesmith's drawing. His all-too-thin linework is far more sinewy and animated than most ligne claire tends to be. And his rotting potato-faces manage to be expressive and adorable. I think some Fell stuffed dolls are in order. The ending was a little too "What Would Michael Moore Do?" and Templesmith's coloring still looks a little too much like radioactive ooze, so it's not all perfect, but it fills a bit of the morning commute perfectly.